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NEWS RELEASE

SUMMER FADES, BUT THE TRASH REMAINS:
Groups Call on State Lawmakers to Pass the Bigger Better Bottle Bill

As the Labor Day weekend approaches, environmental groups released new statistics on the fate of discarded bottles and cans and called on state lawmakers to update New York’s bottle bill. The bottle bill requires a 5-cent refundable deposit on beer and soda containers sold in New York.

According to a new analysis prepared by the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), about 8 billion beer and soda containers, or about 80% of those sold, were recycled last year through the state’s bottle bill and curbside recycling programs. In contrast, only about 68 million water bottles and other non-deposit beverage containers were recycled, or about 22% of those sold.

Supporters of New York’s bottle bill are calling on the New York State Legislature to update the law to include bottled water, iced tea, and other non-carbonated beverages that were virtually non-existent when the original law was passed in 1982. Beach cleanups have documented that these non-deposit bottles and cans litter beaches and waterways twice as often as those with the nickel deposit, despite making up less than 25% of the beverage market. 

“Another summer has come and gone, and billions more bottles and cans have ended up on our beaches or in overflowing garbage cans because our State Senators in Albany refuse to update New York’s bottle bill,” said Laura Haight, NYPIRG’s senior environmental associate.

“Beverage consumption increases as temperatures rise, and so do the piles of empty bottles and cans ending up as litter and in the trash,” said Jenny Gitlitz, research director of the Container Recycling Institute.

“We invite volunteers to join us on our annual beach cleanup on September 16 th,” said Barbara Toborg of the American Littoral Society. “People can see for themselves why state lawmakers need to update the bottle bill to include bottled water and other non-carbonated drinks.”

According to CRI, most of the non-carbonated beverages sold in New York are packaged in plastic bottles. Recycling just 70% of these plastic bottles each year would:

• Keep 64,000 tons of plastic out of landfills and incinerators
• Save almost 600,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent
• Reduce greenhouse gases by 20,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent

The State Assembly has passed the Bigger Better Bottle Bill for two years in a row, but the State Senate leadership has refused to bring the bill up for a vote. For more information about the Bigger Better Bottle Bill, go to www.nypirg.org or www.container-recycling.org. To join a local shoreline litter cleanup, contact the American Littoral Society, www.alsnyc.org.

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View the Plastic Bottle Recycling fact sheet (PDF, 100kb)

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